Web strategy for small businesses: Mobile and simple

If you don't already have a website for your business, at this point it is better to start with a mobile design and build it out for a desktop version. Don't do it the other way around.

LAURA KLEPACKI

If you don't already have a website for your business, at this point it is better to start with a mobile design and build it out for a desktop version. Don't do it the other way around.

So advises entrepreneur David Chen, founder and CEO of Strikingly, an online business with offices in Shanghai and San Francisco that provides a single-page model for small businesses and individuals to build their own digital sites, with mobile taking priority. Chen has some points he wanted to share with Pocono Mountains small business owners about the digital market.

Mobile is expected to overtake fixed Internet access by 2014, according to several digital research sources. "What that means is that mobile traffic is the most important traffic for everyone," assessed Chen. "If you don't have a web site that is mobile optimized, you are losing tons of users."

Furthermore, mobile users are in action mode. "You are out the door," Chen pointed out, "not sitting in front of your computer." If you are searching on the phone or tablet for a restaurant, "it is because you want to go now," said Chen. "That is why mobile optimization is really important."

When creating content for mobile, business owners should take time to consider their site's strategy and purpose, counseled Chen.

"Businesses really need to have one 'call to action,' on their mobile sites, said Chen. "The message should be apparent and clear, so that it will pitch them or lead them to a certain action."

Depending on the business, that could mean moving a consumer to call for a price quote, in which case the phone number should be easy to find and repeated. Or perhaps a local business seeks to draw consumers in, thus an address, directions or map should dominate.

The site should also be "kept simple" and "straightforward," Chen said. "Most people don't have a long attention span on mobile — they are moving by nature.

"You should have a simple tagline with the most important value you are offering. You don't have to tell them everything (about your business). just lock them down with that one thing. 'This small business is doing this or that.'"

Chen also wholeheartedly believes in missions or storylines. "It is a social world now. People need to care about what you are doing. Try to contextualize why you are doing what you are doing."

A favorite for him is Apple. "They say they are trying to 'make the impossible possible,' rather than 'we have built the best computer,' he said. "Maybe for a local restaurant it would be, 'we dream of offering the most authentic Thai food in the U.S.'"

While numerous other website and blog development tools are available online, such as Wordpress, Web.com and BuildYourSite.com, the concept for Strikingly grew out of Chen's own construction "pain."

"It was insane that I still couldn't do the most simple thing myself," said the University of Chicago alum. Chen wanted something he could use on his own without having to constantly seek assistance.

The concept was to take the most simple web design building model he could find and "make it even simpler." It took the Strikingly team three versions before they were satisfied.

The result is a process that some claim can build a website in as little as 10 minutes. "We wanted to reduce the time from hours or days to the minutes-level," said Chen.

And the origin of the name? 'Striking' is the type of experience Chen wants users to have. "We want our customers to have a 'striking' website."